On this day in 1888, 43-year-old Mary Ann "Polly" Nichols, the first "canonical" victim of Jack the Ripper, was found murdered and mutilated on Buck's Row, Whitechapel, roughly 150 yards from the London Hospital and 100 yards from Blackwall Buildings.

Below is a picture of the Buck's Row Board School, the only remaining building contemporaneous with the site of the Nichols murder.

The stories of the victims coupled with the way they died... all these years later we are (still) fascinated by the horrific circumstances and who-did-it puzzle -- but it's really just so very sad. Ever since I attended a "play" a few years ago that simulated terror/torture situations, I frequently think of all the people over the lifetime of humanity who have been tortured, mutilated, terrorized, etc., and how alone they must have felt while it was happening.

I agree. It is tremendously sad (and sobering to think of how many other women were murdered before and after this time, even in that same area/period, but whose deaths weren't sensational enough to gain such widespread attention). I found the pictures I linked to above of Nichols's daughter, granddaughter, and great-granddaughter to be very moving, by contrast, and life-affirming.